Streetlight
by Laura of Maychoria
Summary: Suga is hurrying down the street to meet his friends for dinner when he hears a sound he can't ignore. Someone is having a panic attack. He has to do something. (Come Morning Light tag with Suga post-Split Second.)


**A/N:** Incredibly self-indulgent self-crossover ho! This is based on an ask I got from sagelynaive on my tumblr. I am very grateful for every comment, every ask, every gift you guys have ever given me. Thank you.

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Suga almost didn't notice the kid at first. Night was coming on, the blush of sunset painting the sky, and streetlights were beginning to light one after the other. It was a busy street and he was moving along it at a good clip, heading somewhere in a hurry. Everyone was. It was kind of how people were in cities in Japan, even provincial cities in Miyagi. He was on his way to meet Daichi and Asahi for dinner. He'd been looking forward to it all week, and he really didn't want to be late.

But a discordant sound hit his ear. A gasp. The voice sounded young, the breath broken. The sound came again, this time closer to a whimper, breathless and choked. Suga took another step, intending to push on. Surely someone else could help whoever it was. Surely it was no big deal and the person would be embarrassed if a stranger stopped and tried to help with something so minor.

But he couldn't lift his foot to take the next step. He seemed physically incapable of passing by when someone was making noises like that. Suga stood still for a moment, struggling with himself. It was none of his business. He was just going to be an intrusion. He should keep going.

There it came again. Another soft, tiny choke of breath, almost completely lost under the bustle and noise of the people all around. Suga spun on his heel, disrupting the flow of traffic as he pushed past people suddenly moving in the opposite direction that he was. Suga endured the glares, the expressions of wrinkled distaste, and pressed on.

There he was. A young guy, looked about high school age, though Suga couldn't tell what year. He was short and slight, though not as small as Hinata and Nishinoya. Even with his light blue hair, it was hard to pick him out where he stood pressed with his back against the wall, his eyes wide as he stared around at the people rushing by. Something about him just seemed to...fade into the scenery. Still, Suga found him and locked on.

The kid's face was pale and drawn, and his knees were bending. His fingernails scrabbled backward against the brick. He seemed on the verge of passing out. And there was a haunted look in his eyes that Suga recognized. From his kouhai. From his peers. From the mirror.

Suga reached him as quickly as he could. He stepped into the kid's sight as ostentatiously as possible, hoping not to startle him into a fear reaction. He smiled gently as the kid's eyes flickered over to him, registering his presence but not reacting.

"Hello there," Suga said. "Are you okay?"

The kid barely hesitated. Then he shook his head. He tried for another breath, his chest jerking visibly. "Panic...attack..." he forced out through trembling lips. "Sorry..."

Suga shook his head slowly. "Don't be sorry. It happens. Here, can you walk with me to that bench over there? We'll sit down and figure this out together."

The kid's eyelashes fluttered. "Yes..."

Suga carefully took his arm and led him to the bench. The kid wavered on his feet, but fortunately the bench was only a few steps away, a single streetlight shining brightly above. Suga set him down, then crouched in front of him and gave him another smile. "All right, is that better?"

The kid nodded jerkily. He was still having trouble breathing.

"My name is Sugawara Koushi, but my friends call me Suga. I'd like you to call me Suga, all right?"

He nodded. "Thank you...Suga-san. I'm...Tetsu."

"It's nice to meet you, Tetsu-kun." Suga tilted his head. "Or should I call you Tetsu-chan? I think you look like a Tetsu-chan."

A smile flitted over the kid's lips, even as he continued to struggle. He nodded. "Yes. Tetsu-chan...is good."

"Okay, Tetsu-chan. Can you take a deep breath for me?" Suga drew in a deep breath of his own, demonstrating.

Tetsu followed along, though his chest hitched again. He seemed to know what to do, even though he was having trouble doing it. He'd probably had more than one panic attack in the past, and hopefully someone had coached him through it before.

Suga nodded in encouragement. "Good, good. You're doing fine, Tetsu-chan. Let's keep breathing."

Another breath, and another, slowly growing more controlled. Tetsu's hands clenched in the fabric over his knees, trembling. Suga told him that he was doing well, that he would be okay, and praised him for every tiny improvement.

"I'm sorry," Tetsu said again, when he had a little more breath. "I should be...over this…"

Suga shook his head. "Don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry about. Let's just keep breathing, all right?"

"Yes, but…" Tetsu fidgeted, embarrassed, but still obeyed when Suga urged him to take another breath. "I'm sorry to trouble you… You didn't have to stop for me…"

Suga shook his head again, though he couldn't help the guilty realization that he was still thinking about meeting Daichi and Asahi and hoping that he wouldn't be too late. He needed to focus on the boy in front of him. "It's no trouble. I recognized the symptoms. Last year one of my precious kouhai suffered a violent attack, and everyone on my team had to deal with the trauma of that. Another breath now, all right?"

Tetsu breathed, deep and long. Recognition sparked in his eyes. "Trauma… That's what my dad said, too. I'm not being paranoid. It's trauma. My brain is trying to protect me."

"Your dad is a very wise man. That's exactly right."

Another breath. "I'm still sorry to trouble you. I shouldn't have, but I... I seem to have lost my nii-san. And my team. And my phone is dead."

"Then I'm glad I was here," Suga said stalwartly. Another breath. Suga sought a distraction tactic. "You said you were here with your team. What sport do you play?"

Tetsu managed his first genuine smile since Suga found him panicking against the wall. "Basketball."

"That's wonderful. I played volleyball. Well, I still do… But those high school years are very precious."

Tetsu nodded. "We were coming to the mountains for a training camp. I don't know how I got lost, but…"

Suga tsked. "No wonder you got scared, lost in a strange city far from home without your nii-san and your team. I'm very glad I happened to be on the same street." And he was.

Tetsu's breathing had settled down now, though he was still shaky, his eyes too wide. In a little while he was going to be exhausted and sluggish, when the adrenaline finally flowed out of his system. Suga felt safe enough, now, to sit next to him on the bench, no longer watching him without blinking.

Suga pulled out his phone. "Do you know your brother's number by heart? I'll call him for you."

Tetsu nodded and gave him the number. Suga punched it in and listened to the phone ring. It was almost immediately answered, a gruff voice yelling on the other end for him to get off the line because he was waiting for Tetsu-chan to call him and he couldn't waste time with wrong numbers.

Suga grinned crookedly. Tetsu's nii-san sounded like his polar opposite in every way. But it was evident that he cared very much about his little brother, and that was all Suga needed to know. "Hello, hello. Tetsu-chan is right here. I'll let you speak to him."

He handed Tetsu the phone, watching him grip it with white knuckles and press it to his ear. The voice on the other end remained loud enough for Suga to hear, but the tone changed instantly the moment Tetsu's voice came on. Tetsu assured "Taiga-nii" multiple times that he was fine, he wasn't hurt, he just got lost and his phone died.

Taiga-nii also seemed to be pretty sharp on the uptake. "You had another panic attack, didn't you? Damn it, Tetsu-chan. I hate that this keeps happening to you."

"I'm fine, Taiga-nii. Suga-san took care of me. He's very kind."

"That's the owner of this phone? Tell him I'm sorry I yelled at him. Where are you? I'll come get you."

Tetsu glanced around, looking for street signs, and that blank, panicked look started to sneak back into his eyes. Suga smiled gently and wiggled his fingers to draw his attention. "Here, I'll tell him."

Tetsu handed him the phone with a look of profound gratitude. Suga put it to his ear. "Hello, Taiga-kun?" he asked with a great deal of humor. "My name is Suga. I'll tell you how to get here."

"Ah, yeah." Taiga's voice was sheepish. "Sorry about earlier. I really appreciate you looking after my little brother. I'm Kagami Taiga, by the way. He's Kagami Tetsuya." He seemed to know somehow that Tetsu would have been too flustered to give his full name.

"It was no trouble," Suga said, and he meant it. "If one of my sisters or kouhai was having a bad moment far from home, I would want someone to stop for them, too."

"Right. Thank you. Where are you? I'll come as quick as I can."

Suga gave him their location and rough directions on how to get there, based on Taiga's description of where he was at the moment. Then he gave the phone to Tetsu so the brothers could say their farewells. Tetsu was much calmer now that he'd spoke to his nii-san and knew that he was on the way to get him, but Suga didn't miss the faint tremble in his hand when he gave the phone back.

"Don't you have somewhere to go?" Tetsu asked after a moment, when Suga continued to sit there. "You kept glancing down the street. You were in a hurry."

"Oh." Suga was honestly surprised. He'd almost forgotten. He took his phone out again and opened the messaging program to send Daichi a text. "Yes, I was in a hurry. I'm sorry I gave the impression that I wanted to leave you. It's all right. My friends will wait for me."

"You should go," Tetsu said. "I'll be fine now. Taiga-nii is coming."

Suga hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "No. I'll stay with you until he gets here." He slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Besides, I already told my friends that I'll be late. It would be embarrassing for me to show up on time now."

Tetsu blinked at this odd logic, but seemed to accept that Suga wasn't going to leave him. He slumped back against the bench, some of the tension running out of his body. "If you're sure you don't mind," he murmured.

Suga nodded. "I'm sure. I'm happy to sit here with you. Your brother isn't that far away. I don't doubt that he'll be here soon."

Tetsu smiled crookedly. "He's probably yelling and knocking people over in the street and causing a ruckus, as usual."

Suga chuckled at the image. "You and your brother seem...very different."

"Yes." Tetsu blinked serenely at the street. He was almost completely calm now. Talking about his brother seemed to have a soothing effect on him. "People have remarked that I'm the blue oni and he's the red oni. I prefer to say that I'm the shadow to his light, though."

"You seem to be very close."

"Taiga-nii saved me." Tetsu looked at Suga frankly, his eyes wide and unafraid. "I would have died without him."

Suga almost shivered at the starkness of those words. It was a strange thing for one brother to say about another, but Tetsu seemed entirely sincere. "You must have quite a story," he said softly.

Tetsu nodded and stared away again. "What happened to your kouhai? The one who was attacked." He glanced at Suga sideways, suddenly blushing. "If it's okay for me to ask, I mean. I'm sorry, I know I can be too blunt sometimes."

Suga shook his head. "It's all right. It's far from a secret." He sighed, a swirl of nausea passing through his gut at the memories. "Hinata was attacked by a thug in a random act of violence. This awful person—another student at our school, and that just makes it all the worse—suddenly and without provocation grabbed his head and slammed him face-first into a wall. I and two of my other kouhai witnessed it, as well as one of Hinata's classmates and some other people in the hall. It was a horrible thing. Hinata had a fairly bad concussion and needed several weeks to recover before he could play volleyball with us again. And yes, we thought at one point that he might die. It was a terrifying time for the entire team."

"That must have been horrible," Tetsu said softly.

"It was."

"And you led your kouhai through all of that, Suga-san?"

Suga huffed an amused breath. "Not really. Daichi was the captain, and he was more the leader than I was. But I did talk some of our kouhai through some very distressing moments, yes."

"I bet you were good at it." Tetsu looked up at Suga with his big eyes.

Suga crooked a smile and glanced away, rubbing the back of head. "I did what I could."

Tetsu nodded and looked to the street again. "You sound like Taiga-nii."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It is."

They were quiet for a moment. Suga could tell that Tetsu wanted to ask more questions. Maybe even confess what had caused his panic attack, the "trauma" that his dad had talked to him about. But it was hard to discuss these things with a stranger, and Suga knew very well that some experiences were worse than others, even if they were all on the same spectrum of horror and pain and fear. He didn't know why, but he had the feeling that what had happened to Tetsu was worse than what had happened to Hinata.

Finally, Tetsu shivered and opened his mouth again. "Is Hinata-kun okay now?"

"Yes," Suga said instantly. "He's better than okay. All of his friends and family and teammates are closer to him and to each other than they ever were before. We still keep in touch."

He remembered a similar question from Kageyama, when he was the midst of dealing with his PTSD. Kageyama had wanted the story of Suga's friend from middle school, then one who had also been through horrors. He had wanted to know that she was okay now, that she had healed. Suga had been glad to tell him that that was so. Afterward, Kageyama's voice had lost all of its tension, and he'd finally been able to find restful sleep.

This seemed to soothe Tetsu, too. He nodded solemnly, and his voice was calm. "Yes, it was the same for me. What happened to me was terrible, awful in every way. I'm still learning how badly it affected me and how much I still have to heal. But good came out of that bad situation, despite everything. I have a wonderful family now, and in some ways my life is better than it's ever been."

"Ah," Suga said. "I'm very glad to hear that, Tetsu-chan."

Tetsu smiled self-deprecatingly. "And sometimes I have panic attacks on the street so bad that a total stranger has to interrupt his plans to help me."

"It was my pleasure to assist you," Suga said quietly. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."

Tetsu looked away.

"In fact, I should thank you for the opportunity. I was in danger of forgetting how important it is to look outside myself and see the people I pass on the street as more than just a blur of faces. That's something we all must guard against. You are a person, and you are important, and I'm grateful for the reminder."

Tetsu just stared at him for a moment, his eyes slowly growing wider and wider. "You...are rather an extraordinary person, Suga-san," he said with wonder in his voice.

Suga laughed. "No. I'm only a first-year university student who loves volleyball. There's nothing extraordinary about me."

Tetsu shook his head, but politely looked away. "Please tell me about volleyball, and about your team. I'd love to hear your story."

Suga nodded readily and agreed. They passed the time that way, talking about the sports they loved, the games they'd played, the opponents they'd faced, and the things they learned, until Kagami Taiga found them. He was a tall, well-built teen with messy dark red hair and fierce eyes. He was red-faced and panting from his reckless passage through the streets, but he calmed immensely the instant his eyes set on his brother. He came the rest of the way in a rush and crouched in front of Tetsu on the bench, much like Suga had done at the beginning.

"Tetsu-chan! Are you okay?"

Tetsu nodded calmly. "I'm fine, Taiga-nii. You didn't have to be in such a hurry. I had very good company."

Taiga's eyes flicked to Suga, taking him in for the first time. He popped up to his feet and gave Suga a deep bow. "Thank you very much, senpai! I owe you more than I can say."

Suga flapped a hand at him, laughing and flushing in the same moment. What an odd young man. His manners were rather rough, but charmingly sincere. "It's all right, it's all right. You don't have to call me senpai. Suga is fine."

Taiga straightened and stared at him with wide, earnest eyes. "Then thank you, Suga-san. I am very grateful to you."

"It was nothing, truly. I was glad to meet Tetsu-chan. He's an amazing young man."

Taiga grinned at this, wide and goofy. For a moment, he seemed more like a parent than a sibling, pleased by Suga's praise of his treasured child. "He is, isn't he?"

Suga grinned.

Taiga turned back to Tetsu. "Are you ready to go? Hyuuga-senpai is about to throw a fit, and Coach is muttering about putting you in a Boston Crab Hold again."

Tetsu gulped, but stood up from the bench. "Please protect me from Coach, Taiga-nii."

"I'll try," Taiga said, on the edge of laughter. "But even the best nii-san in the world can only protect you so much."

Suga narrowed his eyes, wondering if he should have a talk with this coach about the proper way to treat team members who had been through trauma. But Taiga's voice was jocular, and even though Tetsu acted wary, it was pretty clear that he wasn't actually afraid. Suga stood up to see them off, though, inexplicably sad that this small interval under the streetlight was about to end.

Tetsu gave him a smile, then looked at his brother. "Do you have Suga-san's number on your phone?" Taiga nodded, and Tetsu looked back to Suga. "When my phone is charged again, would it be okay if I put your number in it? You said that you keep in contact with your kouhai. I...I would like to converse with you sometimes, too. If that's all right."

Suga grinned so hard his face hurt. "Of course! I look forward to hearing from you, Tetsu-chan. Call or text me anytime you like."

Tetsu nodded solemnly. "I will." He glanced down the street, shoulders slumping in a sigh. "We truly do need to go, though, before Coach has a complete breakdown."

Suga gave him a sad little wave. "Good-bye, then. I hope your training camp goes well."

"Thank you, Suga-san. I'm sure it will." Tetsu bowed deeply to him, and Taiga also bowed again, just a beat later. Suga chuckled, but bowed back, then waved as they disappeared down the street.

And that was it. Suga sighed and continued his abandoned journey to meet his friends. He was going to be rather late now. But he didn't regret this detour. Not even a little bit.

 _The End_


End file.
